As part of the 2013 Wear It! campaign, the National Safe Boating Council provided approximately $30,000 in resources and funding to 14 groups nationwide to help promote the campaign in their communities. The North American Safe Boating Campaign and this project are produced and supported under a grant from the Sports Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, administered by the U.S. Coast Guard.

1. 2013 Wear It! Grassroots
Support Recipients
To download the 2014 application, visit
SafeBoatingCampaign.com
Applications due March 14, 2014
Questions? Email
ymoslehian@safeboatingcouncil.org
Note: 2013 recipients were selected by a committee using a scoring rubric. The
committee will use the same scoring rubric to select this year’s recipients.

2. Marion County
Hometown Health (Arkansas)
 Wear It! Support:
aluminum signs, stencil
kit, stickers, whistles and
temporary tattoos,
inflatable lifejacket
education kit, and life
jackets
 5 events with over 250
participants
 Surveys gave evidence
of good retention of new
knowledge related to life
jacket types, life jacket
regulations and use on
Arkansas waterways

3. New Lifeline (California)
 Wear It! Support: Life jackets, whistles, custom Wear
It! banner
 Hosted a Water Safety Day, distributing over 200 life
jackets to people in the community; about 700 people
attended the event

4. Palm Beach County Volunteer
Fire Rescue Association (Florida)
 Wear It! Support: 500 Wear It! whistles,
custom Wear It! banner, 250 Wear It! buttons,
24 inflatable life jackets
 Participated in 6 events with the potential to
reach over 150,000 people
 They use data from the Drowning Prevention
Coalition and Sheriff’s office to determine the
level of boating, drowning or near-drowning
incidents in order to focus their education
campaign accordingly. Their success in
measured in the reduced number of
accidents/incidents/enforcements involving
people not wearing life jackets.

5. Scott Free Racing Team (Florida)
 Wear It! Support: Wear It! banner, Wear
It! stickers, funding to support purchase
of team uniforms with Wear It! logo,
Wear It! logo on autograph cards
 Raced in 5 events with the potential to
reach over 140,000 people
 “Being a race team, our life jackets are
one of the most important safety features
we have in the boat. It allows the people
we are informing to see the credibility
behind our team and how life jackets
really do save lives. So if we can make
an impression about life jacket safety
when they are young, hopefully bad
habits won’t develop and wearing a life
jacket will be a natural habit.”

6. GA DNR
Law Enforcement Division
 Wear It! Grassroots Support: Wear It!
and Life Jacket Zone signs, popup
banners, hanging banners
 3 events resulting in potential to reach
over 29,000 and 1 media tour with the
potential to reach over 9 million people
statewide
 In 2012, there were 5 drownings on
Lake Lanier. In 2013 there were ZERO
drownings on Lake Lanier this year. (In
2012, GA had 36 boating accidents with
13 injuries and 5 fatalities. In 2013, GA
had 11 boating accidents with 7 injuries
and 3 fatalities

7. Kayak Crazy, Inc.
 Wear It! Support:
custom shirts, life
jackets, wrap on kayak
 Kayak Crazy promoted
Wear It! at IL Paddle
Sport Festival,
reaching 2,000
attendees; featured
Wear It! on
KayakCrazy.com,
resulting in 160,000+
views
“We reached a wide variety of people from all around the world. I
personally noticed success when I’ve seen every paddler around me
wearing their jackets. Just a year ago, hardly anyone in our group felt the
need to wear them while out on calm water. Since we launched this
campaign, everyone around us has been wearing them every time”

8. LA Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries
 Wear It! Support: Helped
purchase safe boating posters
featuring custom Wear It! logo
 The posters are being
distributed to local regional
officers for distribution to local
marinas and boat launches
 “The support was very useful as
we did these posters in the
southeast portion of the state
where we had a lot of head on
collisions and were able to hang
posters in the local marinas.
Since that time, we have seen a
cut down on the number of
head on collisions in that area.
With this money we were able
to extend our coverage
statewide.”

9. USCG Auxiliary Flotilla 095-31-05
(Michigan)
 Wear It! Support: 4 different banner
designs, life jackets, DVD, dry bags,
throw bags
 Participated in 8 events, resulting in
over 450 contacts
 There was positive feedback received
from students regarding safe boating
practices (how to wear a life jacket
and rules of the road while on the
water)

10. USCG Auxiliary 014-10-13
(New Jersey)
 Wear It! Support: Life Jacket Zone
signs, Life Jacket Zone stencil kit,
custom Wear It! banner
 Participated in 7 events, resulting
in direct communication with 125
people
 Conducted a survey that concluded
that the Wear It! campaign has
been successful in not only
educating boaters on Greenwood
Lake about life jacket wear, but has
encouraged them to wear them
while out on the water. Their visual
observations confirmed this over
the entire campaign, with a
noticeable number of boaters,
fisherman, and paddlers, donning
their life jackets prior to leaving the
parking lot, and walking on the
docks.

11. NY State Parks,
Marine Services Bureau
 Wear It! Support: “I Wear Mine” and “My Boat is a Life
Jacket Zone” stickers; Wear It! hats
 Participated in 36 events, resulting in nearly 2,000
direct contacts
 Goal: hold 50 free boating safety courses with Wear It!
influence for 1,000 students; results: held 31 boating
safety courses for nearly 800 students

12. USCG Auxiliary Flotilla 12-5
(Tennessee)
 Wear It! Support: custom Wear It
Tennessee! aluminum signs
 Held 11 events and reached about
500 boaters with the Wear It
Tennessee! Message
 Flotilla 12-5 is currently working to get
the signs up at more locations
throughout TN to help promote life
jacket wear, boating safety

13. American Canoe Association
 Wear It! Support: provided funding to design
and print waterproof safety placards “Paddle
Safe, Have fun!”; purchased materials for an
educational outreach tool called “Paddler Joe
& Jane”
 Participated in 23 events nationwide,
promoting the Wear It! message
 Over 20,000 of the placards have been
distributed

14. Milwaukee Sailing Center
(Wisconsin)
 Wear It! Support: Life Jacket Zone banners; Navigation Rules sign;
Wear It! posters; Inflatable Life Jacket Education Kit; Wear It! custom
whistles
 Hosted 4 events, resulting in over 3,200 people being exposed to the
Wear It! message
 “Dock masters at our facility continue to report near 100% compliance
with our requirement for all people to wear life jackets at the docks
and on all our boats. Whistles for Life whistles are spotted on most life
jackets.”

15. USCG Auxiliary 9th Western
Division 47 (Wisconsin)
 Wear It! Support: Trailer wrapped with Wear It! message; Wear It!
stickers and educational handouts; life jackets with Wear It! logo
 Participated in 12 events, reaching nearly 70,000 people with the
Wear It! message
 The Wear It! trailer was utilized at water front areas at all times.
The exposure daily was between 2,000 to 30,000 people each
day. The use of it as a backdrop for the Morning Show, TV news
shots and print media brought another 75,000 views